When a film turns out to be a pleasant surprise taking you back in time, making you recall gems such as CHANN PARDESI and MARHI DA DEEVA, then it is nothing less than a big achievement in the present scenario. And DAANA PAANI successfully performs the difficult task, presenting a strong point in the market that is so scared of trying something fresh other than the usual safe genres.
But first of all let me humbly remind, that if Cinema is storytelling, then that story is not to be revealed in any review, post, tweet or article of any kind. Certainly not when the main attraction of a film happens to be its emotionally heart wrenching storyline itself, catching you with surprises.
Hence keeping the mystery intact, DAANI PAANI actually works due to its simplicity, effective writing (with no forced comedy), and uninfluenced execution forgetting all about the status of any big names involved. In other words, every single person in the cast beautifully underplays his or her role like rarely seen before. And therefore here you get to meet a new Jimmy Shergill playing the lead in an adorable subtle manner along with the impressive Simi Chahal who doesn’t even have many dialogues in the film playing his love interest. Besides even the veteran Nirmal Rishi and Gurpreet Ghuggi seem to be in a completely different avatar keeping a low tone, making much greater impact than their expected routine performances. Plus a special deserving mention has to be there for the supporting cast (including Tarsem Jassar in a cameo) and the raw but innocent girl child artists making an instant connect with the viewers in the first half.
Apart from these heartwarming acts, DAANA PAANI also scores in its cinematography and background score in particular (though it does seem to be a bit loud at times). The music (thankfully) remains a strong feature of the film making a good use of traditional folk (like Tappe & more). And the songs are intelligently used, coming in the right moments taking the story progression forward instead of the regular dialogues.
However among the downers, I did find some minor hiccups in dubbing in a few sequences, and missed the backstory of the suffering mother in the middle, who suddenly goes out of the narration unexpectedly. Also the war-front scenes did have their own major issues of execution.
But moving over these ignorable minuses, DAANA PAANI actually conveys a very significant and decisive message to the entire Punjabi film industry (as well as Indian filmmakers) that what you more importantly need to invest in, is not the STARS, but the WRITING, giving much more respect as well as remuneration to the talented writers. Because, even a known and experienced director can do nothing if he hasn’t got enough meat in the story or script in hand.
Moreover, you can surely bring in the viewers on the opening day of the release displaying a STAR on the poster. But what can make a film sustain from Monday onwards is only its writing and the content without any slightest of doubt.
The film brilliantly brings forward the fact with the gifted duo of writer Jass Grewal and director Tarnvir Singh Jagpal excelling yet again offering a gem, post their last worth appreciating film RAB DA RADIO. In addition, it also strongly reminds you of the so vast and rich (but neglected) Punjabi Literature full of such emotionally moving stories, which we have unfortunately forgotten running behind the Star Enigma.
Making an honest confession, I easily get emotional, shedding tears watching a heart wrenching drama, getting deeply involved in a film. But that logically always happens after an hour or so, particularly in the second half of a well-made expressive film, when one has already established a personal connect with some characters emoting on screen going through an emotional turmoil.
However in DAANA PAANI, the same happens within the first 20 minutes of the narration itself, which in my opinion is nothing other than a rare, out of the box and unheard kind of achievement, which I have personally never experienced in my last few decades of movie watching. Believe me, it isn’t something easy to make your viewer feel that way in the opening 20 minutes itself.
And that, I think, should be inviting enough for all to go for it at the earliest taking the family along.
Rating : 3.5 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 for bringing the original storytelling back in Punjabi Cinema)
(Note: The article was first published on UC-News Mobile App in May 2018)
